How to Make Christmas Decorations From Nature

Making Christmas decorations from nature is a very old tradition. The very first holiday decorations were garlands made from tree branches, live Christmas trees, and evergreen wreaths. Natural materials have always been and will always be part of decorating for the holidays. You can decorate your home with items gotten from nature and not only be both modern and traditional, but save a lot of money at the same time. Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Natural Wreaths

Dried Fruit

Natural wreaths are available at almost every store, but you can make your own and save money.

You can make a small or large wreath from English Ivy. English Ivy is easy to grow and it does grow pretty quickly. Once your plant has some length to it, wrap the ivy around a frame that you have inserted into your pot. You can add lights or just about any kind of decorations you like such as berries or other natural decorations. Another great way to make a wreath is to make one from cut greens. Use a round wire frame that you can make from a coat hanger or you can purchase one at any craft store. Take some of your evergreen bunches and tie them together at the base with wire. Then, wind the evergreen branches around the wire frame or take a coat hanger apart and weaver the coat hanger wire around the branches from beginning to end and then form it into a circle.  You can decorate the evergreen bunches with natural fruits and berries and put a bow at the top. For Christmas tree wreaths, take some small twigs and make them into wreaths to hang them on your Christmas tree. You can use a craft Styrofoam circle and add leaf bunches, berries and pine cones with some fresh bay leaves stuck in for scent.  You can also use a glue gun to glue everything to the craft circle instead.

2. Natural Garland

Instead of buying garland at the store for your stairwells or for on your mantle, make them out of cut evergreen branches. Wire the evergreen branches and wind them around your handrails or place them on your mantle. They also look nice over a doorway in a swag design.

When you make your garland, add some bay leaves for a wonderful scent. If you have a bay laurel shrub, the leaves cut from the shrub would be perfect. If you don't have a bay laurel shrub, you can also purchase bay leaves in bulk in some markets. Secure the bay leaves with twine until you have the length that you need and then inter-mingle them with the evergreen branches. Then, add dried fruit, pine cones and berries.

3. Clove-Studded Oranges or Apples

Clove-studded oranges or apples are a wonderful traditional decoration and many years ago, they were given as gifts. They were called pomanders and some of these still exist in museums. Oranges, apples and lemons are typically used to make pomanders. They are very easy to make and they smell wonderful! Here are easy instructions for you to make your own pomanders.

First, with a small knitting needed, skewer or fork, pierce the fruit all over, making each hole about ½" apart. Then, put dried cloves into all of the wholes. In a small paper bag, mix 2 teaspoons each of ground cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add ½ teaspoon of ground orris root if you can find it. The orris root helps to dry and preserve the fruit. Put the clove-studded fruit in the paper bag and shake to completely coat the fruit. Then, place the fruit in a cool, dry place for two weeks. Shake the pomander once a day. Pomanders also look good in a bowl or displayed on a mantle.

These are just a few ideas for decorating your home this holiday season with nature. Have fun!

How to Make Christmas Decorations From Nature

Decorate your home with items from nature. Be environmentally friendly and save money at the same time. Go to http://trimthehome.net for more ideas for the holidays.

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Decorations For a Harvest Festival

Each year, instead of celebrating Halloween, many towns choose to have a Harvest Festival. Harvest Festival is celebrated in autumn, a time of the year when people have harvested all the crops and want to rejoice and give thanks for all the food which has come from the land.

Corn dollies are one of the oldest and most popular decorative items. People have been making corn dollies for thousands of years, out of the last sheaf of corn cut. They believed that the Corn Spirit lives or will be reborn in the straw ornament. The corn doll can be placed at on the table at the harvest banquet. The decorations are kept all through winter, until spring, in order to make sure that the next harvest will be rich.

Many natural things can be used in order to decorate a house or a yard for Harvest Celebration: hay, corn, corn leaves, flowers, dried fruit, nuts, vegetables, etc. For example, a few blocks of hay can be used as the base of the front porch display. You can add big pumpkins, which give a brighter orange look.

Nature is at its richest in this time of year. You can use that to your advantage and make wonderful decorations. You can make the most original floral arrangements using fruit and flowers. Cut a few holes in giant pumpkin then stuff those holes with flowers of all colors. You can also fill the holes with florists foam, then arrange a selection of grass, willow branches and leaves, oranges, seed heads, berries or pomegranates, arranging them as you please.

Vegetables can be used for making all sorts of figurines, like people or animals. Melons can be used as bodies and pumpkins, beetroots, turnips or gourds can be used to make the heads. On the "heads" you can put terracotta pots as hats. Cucumbers, corn or carrots can give good suggestions of legs and arms.

Set your imagination free and transform an ordinary container into a special one. Take a big plain vase and put some double sided tape around it. Then stick plants to the tape: dry twigs, small vegetables, dry fruit, grass and fallen leaves in all the earthy colors. The remaining empty spaces can be filled by sticking grains of sand or small pebbles to the double sided tape. Make the arrangement tighter by securing the plants with string or with raffia. After decorating the vase, feel free to fill it with flowers.

Wonderful decorations can be made on the middle of the table. Put some paper as a base on the table, in order to avoid damaging the polished table top with moisture from the dead leaves. Next, make a carpet of fallen red, yellow, orange and brown leaves. On this colorful carpet, put small branches, acorns, twigs and cones in the shape of a basket, or a bird's nest. In the middle of the seemingly bird's nest, put fruits and vegetables.

For a more extravagant look, you can add some candles here and there, which, when lit, spread a warm and welcoming light all over the table. Create contras in the arrangement, by making a center of shiny red apples or small pumpkins in the middle of a brownish dried carpet of leaves and twigs. Apples can also be used as candle holders, keeping candles in place, because they can be easily carved in almost any shape.

For those who do not want to stick to the traditional, there is a variety of other natural products which can be used for decorating. Bamboo, in lighter colors, can be found at florist's supply shops. Bamboo sticks can be tied together with heat, dried flowers or silk decorations.

Walls and stairs in or outside the house can be decorated with vine wraths. Wraths can be decorated with red, purple or blue ribbons, pine cones and leaves in order to look more glamorous. Door decorations are, of course, the first thing guests notice. In order to make an ornament for the door you need some raffia festive ribbons, plastic or dried oranges, colorful fallen leaves and some glue to make a harvest wreath.

Braid the raffia rope in a loose manner then tie small flowers and oranges in the braided raffia. Make a big ribbon leaving long tails and tie it around the braid. Glue many leaves on the ribbon tails and on the raffia braids, in order to make it look richer and more colorful. You can also glue some moss on the braid, or even grass.

Children like to play games and receive gifts and candy. Children can decorate the paper sacks in which they put prizes and sweets with leaf cutouts. Children can also help decorating, especially because they have the most fun doing it. For example, they can make paper bag pumpkins for themselves. For this, they need a brown paper bag, some orange and green acrylic paint, scissors, a brush, a sheet of construction paper and some pieces of raffia or green string.

The first thing is painting the outside of the paper bag with orange acrylic paint. The top part of the inside will be painted with green paint. After the paint is dry, this top section will be cut with the scissors in order to make small fringes. Small pieces of yellow construction paper can be glued on the bag in order to make it resemble faces or jack-o'-lanterns.

If the bag is going to be used as decoration, it can be filled with crumpled pieces of newspaper. If not, kids can fill them with chocolate, candy canes, fruit or small toys which they receive. After the bag has been filled, kids can tie them with string or with green raffia. If you wish to place the pumpkin bags outside, you should give them some weight by putting a few cups of sand at the bottom before filling it with newspaper or candy.

Sam D Goddard has worked in the party and events industry for many years and has a wealth of experience and ideas for organising celebrations for the whole family. For more information about harvest, click here.

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